How to Pace Your Next Marathon By Effort

Can you offer more on how and when you modify your strategy for seasoned runners? Do you still suggest pacing by feel on race day, as opposed to predicted numbers based on training? And how early for orange (moderate effort) and red zones (hard effort) in a marathon? I'm curious whether the strategy truly differs. For example, even though a trained runner will run faster than when she was untrained, doesn't even a trained runner need to guard against orange and red zones too early? Is the difference mental, in that a seasoned runner will better focus and ignore the body's signals to slow, so can afford to enter orange earlier? Any guidance before Marine Corps is much appreciated! ~ Will

You're welcome, and yes, 100 percent of the time I recommend pacing by effort in a race for all levels of runners, especially long-distance races. We have the innate capacity (inner GPS) to pace ourselves by how our body feels and reacts on the given day. The more you train and race, the better pacing skills you acquire, and the gap between watch pace and effort narrows.

If you think back to your first marathon, just getting to the finish line was an accomplishment. Now, as a seasoned marathoner, your body has the mental and physical fitness to finish, so you continue to build on that in your preparation to improve performance.

This is why I recommend holding back longer in the yellow zone (easy, conversational effort) for newbie marathoners. The distance alone is the challenge. Seasoned runners who are in great shape (no injuries and many marathons under their belt) have the fitness to dial up the intensity earlier in the race.

For instance, a newbie marathon training plan will include long runs, easy-effort runs, and depending on mileage base, possibly a little hard training (hills, speed, tempo). This plan prepares a runner's body to reach the finish line without injury and with a smile on her face.

As that runner tackles more marathons, with each season she adds a little more progression in the form of more long runs, race simulation long runs, tempo and speed workouts, and hill repeats. All of these workouts build fitness to run stronger for longer and withstand running in the orange zone for longer periods of time.

The only time I don't recommend this pacing strategy (dialing it up to the orange zone earlier) is when the runner is not 100 percent healthy, hasn't done hard workouts (speed, tempo, race simulation), or hasn't raced a marathon in the past year. Racing like a seasoned runner (faster for longer) when you're not in seasoned marathoner shape is a great way to bonk at the wall.

Every runner has to guard against going out too fast, and when you race by your body and its response to the course on that given day, you will do just that. It's when a runner locks into one pace that the high risk for bonking comes into play.

Racing by feel also protects against your mind limiting your body. For instance, if you look at your watch early in the race, and it reads 10:30 pace as you're running an easy yellow effort, if that number seems slow for you, it might stress you out and push you to go faster when you should be running slower. On the other hand, if you're running miles 15 to 20 at an 8:45 pace—even though you're in the orange zone, and all is well—your mind might tell you, "Hey, that's too fast, I better slow down!"

I had a reader take my Timeless Challenge and learn a ton about pacing by feel. She trained by her body all season long with a GPS and knew all her pacing stats, but just before her half-marathon, she dropped her GPS, and it broke. She ended up running the race without a watch at all and finished with a 7-minute personal record! All because she ran by effort, was tuned into her body, and wasn't scared off by the slower or faster pace she ran because she had no idea what that pace was.

You've got a few more weeks of training. Tune into your body, and let it be your guide on race day. Good luck (oorah!)

Happy Trails.

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